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Monthly Archives: October 2013

The NC Science Festival (March 28-April 13, 2014) is now accepting applications from teachers and administrators for our 2014 K-12 programs! Applications will be accepted through November 1, and decisions will be made by mid-November. Visit our website at http://www.ncsciencefestival.org/get-involved/k-12-educator-toolkit/ to get started.

The Festival is offering the following programs:

Elementary Schools – Folt Science Nights
The Festival is giving away 75 science kits that will help you host a fun family science night. Kits include planning guide, 12 hands-on activities and materials for up to 200 participants. Kits are free of charge for new schools.

Middle Schools – Invite-A-Scientist
The Festival recruits dynamic and dedicated scientists and experts to share their excitement about STEM with students in NC’s middle school classes. Each visit is geared to inspire your students to consider science as a career and to understand how science impacts our lives. We provide the expert, lessons and planning support, free of charge for 50 schools.

High Schools – Science Spotlight
New for 2014, the Festival has developed curriculum to get high school students thinking about two hot topics in science: nuclear energy and fracking. Students will also have the unique opportunity to continue the discussion online with a Festival-paired expert in the field. We provide the expert, lessons and planning support, free of charge for 25 schools in this pilot program.

If you have any questions about these programs or other Science Festival events, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.

The first meeting was held September 30, 2013 and the room was full with education majors. Thirty students attended the meeting and several science instructors and faculty were present too! Guest Speaker, Blair Driver, discussed information about NCSTA (North Carolina Science Teacher Association), and the benefits of joining as a student. Brochures were passed out about how to enroll in NCSTA. Blair Driver is the District 1 representative for NCSTA and is a middle school science teacher in Pitt County. Dr. Collins from the ECU STEM Center shared information about the center and how students can utilize the resources available at the center in their practicum experiences. The Science Education Club elected 3 representatives for the Leadership Team: Beth Wantz (elementary grades major), Tierra Moore (middle grades major), and Jessica Linkletter (secondary grades major).
The next meeting will be held October 28, 2013 in Flanagan 312 from 7-8pm. The guest speaker will be Cheryl Olmsted, Assistant Superintendent of Pitt County Schools.

We’re very proud to announce several publications and presentations by our elementary science education faculty and graduate students.

Science and Children, the journal of the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) for elementary teachers, has accepted Tammy D. Lee’s article for publication “Close Encounters of the Amphibious Kind: Frog Calls across Ponds and across Disciplines.” Tammy’s article demonstrates how elementary teachers can have students work in groups to learn about sound through frog calls.

In addition, our elementary science education faculty, Tammy D. Lee and Bonnie Glass, along with ECU science education Master’s student, Megan L. Garner, will be presenting two papers at the 2014 International Meeting of the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE) in San Antonio Texas: